JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (September 9, 2010) -The ETSU men's golf season is ready to get underway with one of the most prestigious events on the yearly calendar, the Carpet Capital Collegiate. The annual event is played at The Farm Golf Club, just outside Dalton, Georgia and will begin Friday morning and end on Sunday with 18 holes per day.

The Carpet Capital is always a who's who of college golf. This year's field of 12 includes four teams that competed in the 2010 NCAA Championship (Clemson, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Texas Tech) at The Honors Course, while all 12 squads earned regional qualification. Also, 11 of the 12 schools in the field are ranked in the top-40 of the Golf World/Nike Golf preseason coaches' poll. Georgia is the highest school ranked in the field as they come in with a No. 4 national ranking. The Bucs are looking for their first victory in the event although former ETSU All-American Rhys Davies (Bridgend, Wales) won individual medalist honors back in 2004. Tennessee is the defending team champion.

Additionally, the tournament will feature three of the top-10 players in the country. That list includes No. 3 Russell Henley of Georgia, No. 5 Blayne Barber of Auburn, and No. 8 Bud Cauley of Alabama.

The Bucs are coming off a year in which they reached postseason play for the 22nd time in school history. They also won the Atlantic Sun Championship for the second time in school history. They are ranked No. 32 in the preseason Golf World/Nike Golf coaches' poll.

It was another good summer for the Bucs as they earned plenty of awards and recognition. For their efforts in the classroom, they earned President's Special Recognition status by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA). Also, Paul O'Kane (Castledawson, Northern Ireland), Rhys Enoch (Cornwall, England) and Seamus Power (Waterford, Ireland) were named Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-America Scholars.

Enoch enjoyed a very successful summer full of competition as he played in two very prestigious amateur events. First, he qualified for the British Amateur. Enoch made it all the way to the quarterfinals of match play in the event. Then, he was named and played on the European Palmer Cup team. Stretching back to 1997, the Palmer Cup is a Ryder Cup style competition that pits the best collegiate players from Europe against the best from the United States.

Enoch was also named Atlantic Sun First-Team All-Conference for the third time. He also earned Ping All-American honors and Ping All-Region honors after sharing medalist honors at the NCAA East Regional. He also finished first on the team with a 72.3 stroke average for the season. He was recently named as one of the top-50 players to watch by Golf World.

ETSU returns four players from a year ago including Enoch, O'Kane, Peter Wilson (Locust Valley, N.Y.), and Devin Komline (Dorset, Vt.). The Bucs have also added two fresh faces to the squad. Spencer Lawson (Raleigh, N.C.) and Patrick Spraggs (Rochford, England) are both very talented players that have joined the team for this season.

Lawson just recently qualified and participated in the U.S. Amateur Championship at Chambers Bay in Washington, while Spraggs was teammates with Enoch on the European Palmer Cup team.

Fans can follow all the action from the 7,012 yard, Par-72 layout via Live Stats at GolfStat.com.

For more information on the ETSU men's golf team please go to ETSUBucs.com and click on the men's golf link.